Research

Project Aim(s):

(i) To continue to characterise the clinical subphenotypes of ALS and to further elucidate the observed clinical and genetic overlap between ALS and neuropsychiatric disorders by detailed study of endophenotypes in first and second degree relatives.

(ii) To identify heterogeneous disease subcohorts based on genomic signatures, including those that overlap between ALS and neuropsychiatric illness.

Project Aim(s):

(i) Using existing data, to characterize the impact of ALS stage, cognitive and behavioural effects in ALS on caregiver burden, and to ascertain the unmet psychological and psychosocial needs of caregivers.

(ii) To provide new data focussing on subjective and objective aspects of caregiver burden that can inform psychologically tailored interventions that enable self-management of carer burden.

Project Aim(s): To explore the attitudes of Irish and Swedish General Practitioners (GPs) to the diagnosis and disclosure of dementia to patients; to investigate GP under-graduate/post-graduate training in dementia; to examine the post-diagnostic support services available to GPs in both countries and to investigate the extent to which dementia is perceived as stigmatising.

To determine the evidence for diet modification - Specifically, thickening fluids to prevent aspiration in people with dementia and swallowing difficulties.

Project Aim(s):To decipher the causal link between histone deacetylases and triplet repeat expansions.

Project Aim(s): To determine if the ApoE stimulator, bexarotene, can restore dysregulated calcium homeostasis in hippocampal neurons from transgenic AD mice.